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CONGRESS    AND    ITS    WORK 
UNDER  THE  PARTY  SYSTEM 


BY 


MARJORIE    SHULER 


STEBBINS    &    COMPANY 

BROOKLYN,    NEW    YORK 

1W7  Union  Street 


CONGRESS    AND    ITS    WORK 
UNDER  THE  PARTY  SYSTEM 


BY 

MARJORIE  SHULER 


STEBBINS  &  COMPANY 

BROOKLYN,    NEW  YORK 


I  •  •     •  ." 


Ssr 


Copyright,   1922 

BY 

STEBB1NS  &  COMPANY 


m  &~ 


CHAPTER  I 

CONGRESS   AND    ITS    POWERS 

The  Two  Houses.— The  most  discussed,  the 
most  criticized  and  the  least  understood  institu- 
tion in  American  politics  is  the  national  law-mak- 
ing body,  Congress.  It  consists  of  two  houses. 
The  upper  house,  or  Senate,  has  a  fixed  member- 
ship of  ninety-six,  two  members  from  each  of  the 
forty-eight  states.  The  lower  body,  the  House 
of  Representatives,  has  a  changing  membership 
based  on  the  population  of  the  various  states. 
The  number  is  now  set  at  four  hundred  and 
thirty-five,  New  York  having  the  greatest  repre- 
sentation, forty-three,  and  Delaware,  Arizona, 
Nevada,  New  Mexico  and  Wyoming,  the  small- 
est number,  one.  Alaska  and  Hawaii  each  have 
one  delegate,  who  is  allowed  to  serve  on  certain 
committees  and  to  take  part  in  debate,  but  not  to 
vote.  The  Philippine  Islands  and  Porto  Rico 
have  resident  commissioners  with  privileges  simi- 
lar to  those  of  the  territorial  delegates. 

Senators  and  Representatives  receive  the  same 


132.  Congress  and  Its   Work 

salary,  .seven  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  an- 
nually.-, 'In*  addition  they  are  allowed  traveling 
expenses  of  twenty  cents  per  mile  for  each  mile 
from  their  homes  to  Washington  and  return  each 
session.  They  also  have  stationery  and  office  sup- 
ply allotments,  are  permitted  to  send  all  except 
personal  letters  without  paying  postage  and  are 
given  the  services  of  clerks  and  secretaries. 

Representatives  are  elected  every  two  years. 
The  states  are  divided  according  to  population 
into  congressional  districts,  the  voters  of  each 
district  choosing  their  own  representative.  All 
the  voters  of  each  state  may  participate  in  the 
election  of  the  senators,  who  are  given  six-year 
terms,  one-third  of  the  ninety-six  being  elected 
biennially.  The  longer  term  and  the  common  re- 
election,— three  former  senators  served  continu- 
ously for  thirty-two  years  each — aid  in  keeping 
that  house  the  more  conservative  of  the  two. 

The  Sessions  of  Congress.— Although  mem- 
bers are  elected  to  Congress  in  November  of  the 
even-numbered  years,  they  are  not  called  into 
regular  session  until  a  year  from  the  following 
December,  thirteen  months  later.  This  provision 
of  the  constitution  is  a  survival  of  the  days  when 
it  took  six  weeks  for  the  news  to  reach  Andrew 
Jackson  at  his  home  near  Nashville,  Tennessee, 
that  he  had  been  elected  President  of  the  United 


Congress   and  Its   Work  133 

States,  and  another  three  months  for  him  to  travel 
by  coach  to  the  national  capitol.  In  later  years  it 
has  been  subjected  to  much  criticism,  experience 
having  demonstrated  that  when  the  voters  turn 
one  party  out  and  put  another  in  power  in  No- 
vember, the  Congress  of  the  succeeding  Decem- 
ber to  March  does  practically  no  work  at  all. 
This  is  true  even  when  the  incoming  party  al- 
ready has  a  majority  in  Congress  for  Senators 
and  Representatives  wait  for  the  new  adminis- 
tration to  take  the  initiative  in  framing  policies. 
The  nation  thus  suffers  from  the  delay  of  needed 
legislation  and  is  put  to  the  expense  of  an  extra 
session  to  do  what  should  have  been  done  in  the 
regular  session. 

The  session  which  convenes  in  December  of  the 
odd-numbered  years  continues  so  long  as  there  is 
business  to  be  transacted  and  is  called  the  long 
session.  The  session  which  convenes  in  Decem- 
ber of  the  even-numbered  years  continues  until 
noon  on  the  following  fourth  day  of  March,  when 
the  members  elected  the  preceding  November 
take  office  and  is  called  the  short  session. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  who  is 
empowered  to  adjourn  Congress  when  it  can 
come  to  no  such  agreement  on  its  own  account, 
may  also  convene  extraordinary  sessions.  So  fre- 
quently has  this  been  done  recently  that  during 


134  Congress  and  Its   Work 

the  ten  years  from  1910  to  1920  there  was  but  one 
year,  1915,  when  the  regular  interval  elapsed  be- 
tween sessions. 

Historical  Development  of  Congress. — Con- 
gress was  created  to  be  to  the  nation  what  the 
legislature  was  to  the  state.  Although  the  situa- 
tion then  was  such  that  Madison  complained  that 
'the  backwardness  of  the  best  citizens  to  engage 
in  the  legislative  service  gave  too  great  success 
to  unfit  characters/  the  founders  of  the  republic 
saw  no  better  model  than  that  offered  by  the 
state  legislatures. 

The  federal  constitution  was  not  framed  to  re- 
quire Congress  to  hold  public  sessions,  but  it  does 
provide  that  "each  House  shall  keep  a  Journal 
of  its  proceedings,  and  from  time  to  time  publish 
the  same,  except  such  parts  as  may  in  their  judg- 
ment require  secrecy." 

At  first  the  Senate  took  advantage  of  its  pre- 
rogative to  keep  its  sessions  secret,  but  in  1799  it 
admitted  spectators  to  its  debates.  The  House 
of  Representatives  practised  no  such  conceal- 
ments and  during  the  first  thirty  years  of  its  ex- 
istence was  the  center  of  public  interest  and 
authority.  It  exercised  considerable  control  over 
both  federal  and  local  political  affairs. 

During  the  first  years  of  Congress  practically 
all  the  political  questions  of  the  day  were  dis- 


Congress  and  Its   Work  135 

cussed  in  their  relation  to  the  constitution.  The 
opening  of  lines  of  transportation  and  communi- 
cation, the  admission  of  new  states  and  the  an- 
nexation of  territory,  the  tariff  and  international 
affairs  were  all  made  matters  of  constitutional 
interpretation  and  argued  from  the  viewpoint  of 
that  most  fertile  cause  of  controversy  in  this 
country,  federal  versus  state's  rights.  Although 
the  abolition  movement  brought  orators  forward 
in  political  affairs,  it  is  lawyers  who  have  pre- 
dominated in  Congress  from  the  beginning  down 
to  the  present  time.  A  recent  survey  of  the  mem- 
bership showed  that  of  the  ninety-six  Senators, 
no  fewer  than  sixty-eight  were  lawyers.  Thir- 
teen were  business  men,  six  newspaper  pub- 
lishers, three  doctors,  two  farmers,  and  four 
unclassified.  Of  the  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  Representatives,  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
were  listed  as  lawyers. 

The  Powers  of  Congress. — The  confirmation 
of  treaties  and  presidential  appointments  is 
vested  solely  in  the  Senate.  Charges  of  impeach- 
ment of  high  public  officials  are  laid  first  before 
the  House,  which  decides  whether  the  charges 
shall  be  preferred  before  the  Senate.  Revenue- 
raising  bills  also  originate  in  the  House. 

The  legislation  which  Congress  is  empowered 
to  enact  and  which  requires  the  consent  of  both 


186  Congress  and  Its   Work 

houses  includes  control  of  money-raising,  taxing, 
etc. ;  commerce,  naturalization ;  bankruptcy ; 
money  coinage;  weights  and  measures;  punish- 
ment of  counterfeiting  and  piracy ;  postoffices  and 
postroads;  copyrights;  tribunals  below  the  supe- 
rior court;  declaration  of  war;  raising  and  pro- 
viding for  army  and  navy;  organizing  of  militia 
and  control  of  certain  conditions ;  government  of 
the  nation's  Capitol. 

Congress  also  exercises  considerable  control 
over  the  members  of  the  cabinet.  In  addition  to 
the  Senate  confirmation  of  their  appointments, 
the  two  houses  of  Congress  decide  the  salaries  and 
duties  of  each,  the  number  of  their  assistants  and 
their  duties,  the  creation  of  subordinate  bureaus 
and  appropriations  for  their  entire  departments. 

Besides  their  direct  work  in  Congress,  mem- 
bers also  look  after  the  interests  of  their  constitu- 
ents in  other  respects,  especially  in  connection 
with  the  federal  departments.  Thus  a  member 
of  Congress  may  spend  several  hours  each  day 
seeking  appointments  or  pensions  for  individuals, 
urging  the  establishment  of  a  federal  institution 
in  a  certain  locality  or  the  transference  of  a  pro- 
posed institution  away  from  a  locality  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  community  itself,  or  in  answering 
dozens  of  other  requests. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   ORGANIZATION   OF   CONGRESS 

The  Struggle  for  Leadership. — The  months 
preceding  a  session  of  Congress  are  filled  with 
what  is  termed  *  wire-pulling,'  the  efforts  of  mem- 
bers to  secure  positions  of  party  leadership  and 
chairmanships  and  memberships  of  the  important 
committees  in  both  houses.  New  members  go  to 
Washington  and  old  members  gather  as  well  to 
pledge  votes  for  themselves.  The  party  in  power 
has  the  positions  of  greater  importance.  It  se- 
lects from  its  membership  the  officials  of  the  two 
houses,  all  of  the  chairmen  of  committees  and  the 
majority  of  memberships  on  all  committees. 
Men  who  are  ambitious  for  these  appointments 
enlist  the  aid  of  important  party  leaders  both  in- 
side and  outside  of  Congress  and  sometimes  the 
struggle  continues  down  to  the  very  hour  of  the 
party  caucus  at  which  the  election  is  made  sure. 

In  the  House  the  Republicans  appoint  what  is 
called  a  'committee  on  committees,'  which  guides 
the  choice  of  the  caucus.    The  Democratic  mem- 

137 


138  Congress  and  Its   Work 

bers  of  the  committee  on  rules  perform  a  similar 
service  for  their  party.  In  the  Senate  the  caucus 
itself  makes  its  own  decisions.  /  A  member  who 
is  not  in  harmony  with  the  leaders  in  his  party, 
or  who  displays  any  considerable  amount  of  in- 
dependence finds  it  impossible  to  secure  caucus 
endorsement  for  any  important  position. 

Organization  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives.—In  the  House  the  leading  position  to  be 
filled  is  that  of  presiding  officer,  or  speaker,  who 
ranks  in  Washington  official  life  immediately 
after  the  President  and  Vice-President.  The 
Speaker,  as  a  matter  of  course,  is  always  a  mem- 
ber of  the  party  in  power.  In  addition,  both 
parties  appoint  what  are  purely  party  officials,  a 
floor  leader,  one  or  two  'whips'  and  a  steering 
committee.  The  majority  floor  leader,  or  some 
one  he  asks  to  represent  him,  always  makes  the 
motion  to  adjourn  or  take  recess.  Whether  the 
House  adjourns  or  takes  recess  at  the  end  of  the 
day  is  exceedingly  important,  since  this  deter- 
mines the  order  of  business  for  the  succeeding 
morning.  Sometimes  the  minority  party  protests 
vigorously  against  the  decision  as  to  recess  or  ad- 
journment; and  toward  the  close  of  a  session, 
when  it  is  difficult  to  secure  the  floor  for  any  busi- 
ness, this  motion  has  the  greatest  significance.  It 
is  also  the  duty  of  the  majority  leader  to  see  that 


Congress  and  Its   Work  139 

the  policies  determined  upon  by  the  steering  com- 
mittee of  his  party  are  carried  out  upon  the  floor ; 
and  to  this  end  it  is  essential  that  he  should  be  a 
good  parliamentarian,  to  take  advantage  of  tech- 
nicalities of  floor  procedure  and  to  outwit  oppo- 
nents. The  steering  committee  decides  what  is 
good  party  policy  on  all  party  questions,  and 
which  bills  it  is  wise  to  push.  It  greatly  depends 
upon  the  qualifications  of  the  members  of  this 
committee  what  legislation  is  actually  passed. 

The  'whip'  has  a  great  responsibility  since  he 
must  see  that  when  a  vote  is  to  be  taken  the  mem- 
bers of  his  party  are  present  or  accounted  for. 
Great  indeed  is  his  wrath  and  that  of  his  party 
if  he  fails  to  see  that  a  sufficient  number  of  mem- 
bers are  'whipped  into  line'  to  vote  in  accordance 
with  the  policies  decided  upon  by  the  steering 
committee  and  guided  by  the  floor  leader.  The 
minority  party  'whips,'  steering  committee,  and 
floor  leader  fill  the  same  positions  for  their  party, 
only  with  less  power  than  those  of  the  majority 
party,  and  the  minority  floor  leader  is  always 
recognized  as  the  spokesman  for  his  side  of  the 
House. 

Organization  of  the  Senate. —  The  Senate  is 
presided  over  by  the  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  but  it  also  elects  a  president  pro 
tempore  from  the  majority  party,  and  each  party 


140  Congress  and  Its   Work 

has  its  floor  leader,  steering  committee,  and  one 
whip.  The  party  positions  are  not  ratified  by 
the  body  of  either  House,  but  the  Speaker,  presi- 
dent pro  tempore,  committee  chairmen,  and  mem- 
bers must  all  be  voted  upon  after  the  caucus  re- 
ports are  submitted.  The  nominations  made  by 
the  caucus  of  the  majority  party  always  prevail, 
although  there  is  sometimes  fear  that  this  will  not 
be  so. 

When  the  party  in  power  has  a  scant  majority 
of  one  or  two,  there  are  sure  to  be  some  members 
who  take  advantage  of  the  situation,  either  to 
exact  desired  positions  or  the  promise  of  certain 
legislation  to  secure  their  vote,  or  independent 
members  who  object  to  the  giving  of  offices  to  no- 
torious conservatives  or  reactionaries.  There  was 
a  recent  instance  of  this  kind,  where  one  indepen- 
dent member  of  the  Senate,  by  voting  with  the 
minority,  could  defeat  all  of  his  party  candidates. 
It  had  been  threatened  that  he  would  do  so,  unless 
certain  nominees  of  his  party  were  withdrawn. 
When  the  actual  moment  to  vote  came,  he  stood 
by  his  party,  and  there  was  an  audible  murmur 
in  the  Senate  galleries  while  members  of  his  party 
who  had  not  spoken  to  him  for  months  rushed 
down  the  aisle  to  shake  his  hand.  In  another  re- 
cent instance  the  successful  candidate  of  one  po- 
litical party  was  considered  to  be  at  heart  more 


Congress  and  Its   Work  141 

friendly  to  the  opposing  party  and  it  was  believed 
possible  that  he  might  start  his  senatorial  career 
by  voting  for  the  nominees  of  the  opposing  party. 
He  did  not  do  so,  however,  and  it  may  be  assumed 
with  great  certainty  that  the  members  of  each 
party  will  almost  inevitably  vote  for  the  nominees 
of  their  own  caucus. 

Although  it  is  clear  that  the  party  leaders 
under  such  a  system  of  organization  have  tremen- 
dous control  over  both  Houses,  their  power  is 
considerably  less  today  than  it  has  been  in  the 
past.  In  the  House  it  was  the  procedure  for 
many  years  up  to  1911  for  the  Speaker  to  appoint 
the  committee  members  and  until  1910  to  have  the 
right  to  recognize  only  such  members  as  he  chose 
to  allow  the  floor  in  debate.  A  revolt  against 
domination  by  the  Speaker  caused  the  curtailing 
of  much  of  his  power. 

Standing  Committees. — So  great  is  the 
power  of  the  committees  and  their  chairmen  that 
the  United  States  itself  has  been  called  'a  gov- 
ernment by  chairmen.'  Recently  exceptions  have 
been  made  to  what  was  formerly  a  hard  and  fast 
rule,  which  contributed  greatly  to  the  power  of 
committee  chairmen.  This  was  the  seniority  sys- 
tem, by  which  the  representative  of  the  party  in 
power,  who  had  been  longest  a  member  of  the 
committee  was  given  the  chairmanship,  regard- 


142  Congress   and  Its    Work 

less  of  fitness.  The  argument  in  favor  of  the 
seniority  system  was  that  when  a  man  had  been 
a  committee  member  for  many  years  he  was  toler- 
ably familiar  with  the  work  of  the  committee. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  weak  or  illy-equipped  man 
may  retain  his  seat  in  Congress,  or  a  man  whose 
ideas  are  not  at  all  in  accord  with  those  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  along  a  certain  line  may 
stay  for  years  on  a  committee,  and  not  even  be  a 
good  member  of  the  committee,  much  less  fitted 
to  act  as  its  chairman. 

Another  innovation  which  is  regarded  with 
favor  was  made  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
where  the  majority  party  ruled  that  no  man  who 
was  on  one  of  ten  principal  committees  should 
serve  on  any  other  committee.  Previous  to  that 
time  a  group  of  strong  and  powerful  members 
could  hold  between  them  all  the  places  on  all  of 
the  important  committees. 

Most  of  the  legislation  enacted  by  Congress  is 
determined  by  committees.  Their  recommenda- 
tions usually  decide  the  action  in  either  House 
and  so  they  either  may  make  practically  certain 
the  victory  of  a  bill  or  may  assure  its  defeat  or  its 
delay  so  that  no  action  at  all  is  taken  upon  it. 

While  most  of  the  committee  proceedings  are 
conducted  in  secret  or  executive  session,  it  fre- 
quently happens  that  a  committee  will  hold  open 


Congress   and  Its   Work  .  143 

hearings  where  interested  citizens  may  declare 
themselves  for  or  against  bills.  As  a  source  of 
general  information  these  hearings  sometimes 
prove  of  the  greatest  value.  On  the  other  hand 
members  wishing  to  delay  legislation  will  drag 
out  hearings,  stimulating  the  introduction  of  new 
witnesses,  cross-examining  those  who  appear  and 
devising  such  means  of  delay  that  the  proposed 
legislation  is  never  passed. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LEGISLATIVE   PROCESS 

The  Introduction  of  Bills. — Each  Congress 
passes  a  relatively  small  number  of  the  bills  pre- 
sented to  it.  In  a  recent  session,  for  instance, 
22,594  bills  were  introduced  and  543  passed. 

Causes  of  the  Defeat  of  Bills.— There  are 
two  contributing  causes  to  the  defeat  of  bills. 
One  is  the  opposition  by  members  themselves  or 
by  interested  citizens  outside  of  Congress  who 
for  various  reasons  desire  to  have  certain  bills 
killed.  The  other  cause  is  the  slow-moving  pro- 
cedure of  Congress,  by  which  bills  are  smothered, 
sometimes  intentionally,  sometimes  unintention- 
ally. Those  who  are  working  from  outside  to 
defeat  bills  will  have  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
letters  and  telegrams  sent  from  voters  to  mem- 
bers of  Congress.  They  circulate  petitions  and 
get  signatures  in  opposition  to  the  bills,  which 
they  present  to  the  members  of  Congress.  They 
hold  mass  meetings  and  prevail  upon  newspapers 
to  attack  the  bills.     Sometimes  the  opposing  in- 

144 


Congress  and  Its   Work  145 

fluences  brought  to  bear  upon  them  are  so  strong 
that  members  of  Congress  are  compelled  to  fight 
the  bills,  either  through  secret  arrangements  with 
their  colleagues  or  in  open  debate  on  the  floor. 
Those  who  favor  bills  are  obliged  to  resort  to 
similar  methods  in  order  to  prove  that  the  voters 
desire  the  bills  passed. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind,  therefore, 
that  bills  introduced  before  Congress  have  this 
double  struggle,  both  to  prove  to  members  of 
Congress  that  the  people  really  desire  this  legis- 
lation and  to  survive  the  tedious,  long-drawn-out 
processes  which  characterize  the  deliberations  of 
our  national  law-making  body. 

Referring  of  Bills  to  Committees. — In  the 
House  of  Representatives  a  member  introduces 
a  bill  by  placing  it  in  a  basket  and  rising  on  the 
floor  to  announce  that  fact.  The  bill  is  then 
referred  to  a  committee.  The  presiding  officer 
may  wish  to  make  the  reference  to  a  committee 
known  to  be  friendly  or  unfriendly  to  this  par- 
ticular piece  of  legislation,  but  he  has  far  less 
latitude  in  this  regard  than  the  presiding  officer 
in  a  state  legislature.  For  Congress  is  governed 
not  only  by  rules  but  by  precedents,  which  are  so 
seriously  regarded  as  to  be  printed  for  reference. 
If  a  member  can  point  to  either  a  rule  or  a  prece- 
dent for  the  reference  of  a  bill  or  for  any  other 


146  Congress   and  Its   Work 

proposal  he  wishes  to  make,  he  is  fairly  certain  to 
be  upheld. 

Once  in  committee  the  bill  may  be  smothered 
and  no  action  taken  on  it  at  all,  or  it  may  be  de- 
feated in  the  committee,  or  amended,  or  reported 
back  to  the  House  with  a  favorable  recommenda- 
tion or  an  unfavorable  recommendation.  If  re- 
ported back  to  the  House  the  bill  goes  to  one  of 
two  calendars.  Appropriation  bills  or  private 
bills,  such  as  those  relating  to  pensions  and 
awards,  go  to  what  is  called  the  Calendar  of  the 
Whole  House  or  the  Calendar  of  the  State  of  the 
Union,  which  has  certain  rights  of  precedence 
over  the  other  calendar.  Other  bills  go  to  what 
is  called  the  House  calendar. 

Procedure  in  the  House. —  Then  comes  the 
struggle  to  get  time  for  discussion  on  the  floor, 
except  in  the  matter  of  reports  or  bills  from  the 
committees  on  printing,  elections,  ways  and 
means,  appropriations,  which  are  termed  'privi- 
leged' and  in  both  House  and  Senate  have  certain 
rights  of  precedence  over  all  other  bills. 

Under  ordinary  conditions,  the  chairman  of  a 
committee  in  the  House  of  Representatives  who 
has  reported  a  bill  of  which  he  is  in  favor  applies 
to  the  rules  committee  for  a  rule  to  bring  the  bill 
on  the  floor.  The  rules  committee  may  or  may 
not  have  hearings  on  the  bill,  but  it  does  decide 


Congress   and  Its  Work  147 

whether  or  not  it  will  give  place  to  the  measure. 
If  it  decides  to  allow  it  time,  the  committee  re- 
ports that  fact  to  the  House,  announcing  also  the 
date,  the  hour  and  the  period  allowed  for  debate 
with  the  names  of  the  two  members  who  will  con- 
trol the  division  of  the  time  between  the  affirma- 
tive and  negative  speakers.  When  the  appointed 
day  and  hour  arrives  there  may  be  debate  on  the 
acceptance  of  the  report  from  the  rules  commit- 
tee. But  once  the  report  is  adopted  the  time  is 
controlled  as  it  has  provided  and  no  member  is 
permitted  to  have  the  floor  except  those  listed  by 
the  two  members  in  control  of  the  time.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  alloted  period  the  vote  must  be 
taken  on  the  bill. 

Procedure  in  the  Senate. — The  procedure 
in  the  upper  House  is  entirely  different.  There 
the  difficulty  is  not  so  much  in  getting  the  bill  on 
the  floor  for  discussion,  as  in  getting  a  vote  once 
the  bill  is  on  the  floor.  Appropriations  and  a  few 
special  bills  have  a  separate  calendar.  Other  bills 
go  to  the  calendar  of  general  orders  and  are  called 
by  number  once  a  week,  usually  on  Monday. 

Suppose  this  bill  which  is  so  much  needed  by 
the  country  has  survived  all  this  procedure  and 
gets  as  far  as  the  general  calendar.  It  is  called 
by  its  number  on  a  Calendar  Monday.  If  one 
member  objects,  the  bill  must  go  over. 


148  Congress  and  Its   Work 

On  the  other  hand,  if  there  is  no  objection  a  bill 
may  be  adopted  without  debate  and  once  recently 
with  just  five  senators  on  the  floor  a  very  contro- 
versial bill  was  so  adopted.  As  an  indication  of 
the  amount  of  attention  which  even  these  five 
members  were  paying  to  the  country's  business 
when  a  few  minutes  later  other  Senators  rushed 
on  to  the  floor  to  demand  a  reconsideration,  all 
but  one  of  the  five  stated  that  they  did  not  know 
what  the  bill  was  that  they  had  just  acted  upon. 

Perhaps  this  important  bill  which  the  people 
want  has  two  or  three  strong  enemies  among  the 
members  of  the  Senate.  It  may  be  clear  to  all 
that  if  the  bill  comes  to  a  vote  it  will  be  passed, 
yet  those  two  or  three  men  can  postpone  its  pas- 
sage by  prolonged  discussions,  since  the  Senate 
has  no  limit  on  debate  such  as  that  in  the  House. 
Using  debate  to  delay  legislation  is  termed  'fili- 
bustering.' Sometimes  it  is  the  party  dictators 
themselves  who  resort  to  filibustering  to  defeat  a 
bill  which  may  be  desired  by  many  good  citizens. 

Filibustering  to  Kill  Legislation. —  Filibus- 
tering was  resorted  to  by  the  southern  senators 
in  the  administration  of  the  second  Harrison  to 
defeat  the  'force'  bill.  It  has  frequently  been 
invoked  since  then.  In  fact  the  four  Congresses 
from  1914-1918  each  closed  with  a  filibuster. 
Senator  LaFollette  has  been  one  of  the  most 


Congress  and  Its   Work  149 

noted  exponents  of  the  filibuster,  Senator  Allen 
is  given  credit  for  twenty-one  hours  of  speaking 
when  the  Sherman  act  was  under  consideration, 
Senator  Carter  held  the  floor  for  eighteen  hours 
during  the  vote  on  a  rivers  and  harbors  bill  and 
Senator  Smoot  has  a  record  of  fifteen  hours  dur- 
ing the  discussion  of  the  shipping  bill. 

In  1917  the  Senate  passed  what  is  called  the 
cloture  rule  to  stop  filibustering.  Sixteen  sena- 
tors must  sign  a  petition  to  get  cloture.  The  pe- 
tition must  lie  over  for  two  days.  Then  the  vote 
is  taken  and  two-thirds  of  the  Senate  must  be 
present  and  two-thirds  of  that  number  must  vote 
in  favor,  in  order  to  adopt  cloture.  After  cloture 
is  applied  no  member  may  speak  for  more  than 
one  hour.  Since  a  filibuster  usually  develops  at 
the  close  of  a  session,  and  ninety-six  senators  may 
each  speak  for  one  hour,  cloture  is  not  a  great  help 
in  saving  time   for  the  passage  of  legislation. 

The  Three  Readings. —  Every  bill  must  go 
through  the  formality  of  three  readings  in  each 
House.  Sometimes  only  the  title  is  read,  some- 
times the  amendments- made  in  committee.  But 
the  vote  is  not  taken  until  the  presiding  officer 
announced  the  three  readings.  Minor  points  of 
difference  are  settled  by  viva  voce  vote,  but  bills 
are  usually  submitted  by  roll  call  so  that  each 
member  is  on  record. 


150  Congress  and  Its   Work 

The  Bill  in  the  Other  House.— Providing 
the  bill  is  passed  in  spite  of  all  these  difficulties, 
it  is  sent  from  the  House  which  passes  it  to  the 
other  one.  If  the  second  House  amends  the  bill, 
it  is  then  returned  to  the  one  where  it  originated 
for  acceptance.  Refusal  to  accept  forces  a  con- 
ference. Each  House  appoints  its  conferees  and 
they  may  report  several  times  before  they  are 
able  to  effect  a  compromise.  The  report  of  a  con- 
ference committee  is  not  subject  to  amendment 
and  must  be  accepted  or  rejected  as  presented. 

Appropriation  Bills. — Appropriation  bills 
merit  special  consideration,  since  they  occasion 
more  frequent  controversy  than  any  other  legisla- 
tion. The  constitution  provides  that  revenue- 
raising  bills  shall  originate  in  the  lower  House 
and  it  has  been  the  custom  for  appropriation  bills 
to  be  framed  there  likewise.  The  procedure  is 
for  each  federal  department  to  send  annually  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  the  estimates  for 
its  expenses.  Since  the  amounts  are  always  cut 
down,  the  departments  pad  these  estimates  to 
the  fullest  extent  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury is  only  the  compiler,  with  no  authority  to  cut 
out  duplications  or  to  check  undue  extravagances. 
This  list  is  then  sent  to  the  House,  where  it  is 
divided  between  ten  different  committees.  This 
separation  has  not  tended  to  cut  down  extrava- 


Congress   and  Its    Work  151 

gance  or  eliminate  duplication.  In  1920-21  the 
House  formed  a  joint  appropriation  committee 
with  thirty-five  members  to  handle  all  appropria- 
tion bills,  the  Senate  continuing  to  divide  the 
work  among  seven  committees.  This  reform  was 
considered  preparatory  to  the  adoption  of  a  na- 
tional budget  system  by  which  the  method  of 
handling  might  be  made  still  more  efficient. 

Veto.— r-Bills  passed  by  both  Houses  are  sent 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States  for  his  sig- 
nature, before  they  may  become  law.  If  he  re- 
fuses to  sign  a  bill,  he  returns  it  to  the  House 
which  sent  it  to  him  and  it  then  requires  a  two- 
thirds  vote  by  both  Houses  to  pass  it  over  his 
veto.  If  ten  days  elapse  without  the  President 
of  the  United  States  taking  any  action  whatever 
the  bill  becomes  law  without  his  signature.  If, 
however,  the  President  has  not  signed  the  bill  and 
Congress  adjourns  before  the  expiration  of  the 
ten  days,  the  bill  is  killed  by  what  is  termed  a 
"pocket  veto." 

Congressional  Record. — Stenographic  re- 
ports are  taken  of  every  session  of  Congress  and 
committee  hearings.  The  committee  hearings  are 
published  separately,  but  the  account  of  each 
day's  session  is  printed  in  what  is  called  the  Con- 
gressional Record,  the  reports  for  any  day  always 
being  issued  the  following  morning.    Each  Sena- 


152  Congress  and  Its   Work 

tor  has  eighty-eight  copies  and  each  Representa- 
tive sixty  copies  of  the  Congressional  Record 
daily.  Constituents  may  sometimes  be  placed 
on  the  free  list  of  a  member,  receiving  the  Record 
each  day  during  the  session,  but  members  prefer 
to  send  the  copies  bound  to  the  libraries  in  their 
districts.  It  is  also  possible  to  subscribe  for  the 
Record,  which  is  an  excellent  way  of  following 
the  proceedings  of  Congress.  The  public  distri- 
bution of  the  Record  and  the  reprinting  from  it 
at  small  cost  of  speeches  made  by  members  gives 
rise  to  the  making  of  speeches  solely  for  the  Rec- 
ord. That  is,  a  member  may  secure  the  floor  and 
talk  for  some  time  with  no  intention  of  affecting 
pending  legislation,  but  only  of  affecting  the 
votes  of  his  constituents.  In  the  House  members 
'ask  leave  to  extend  their  remarks,'  which  means 
that  men  who  have  taken  no  part  whatever  in  a 
discussion  carefully  write  out  a  speech  and  it  is 
printed  in  the  Record  exactly  as  though  it  had 
been  delivered  on  the  floor. 

Pairing. — While  it  is  true  that  members  have 
much  work  to  do  for  their  constituents  in  the  va- 
rious federal  departments,  the  general  habit  of 
leaving  the  floor  in  both  Houses  while  the  session 
is  in  progress  is  much  to  be  deplored.  Often 
business  is  being  transacted  when  only  five  or  six 
members  are  present  and  it  is  a  constant  habit  in 


Congress   and  Its   Work  153 

the  Senate  for  all  but  two  or  three  members  to 
leave  the  floor  when  a  long  speech  is  made.  It 
seems  reasonable  to  believe,  if  members  were  re- 
quired to  be  in  their  seats  all  during  the  course 
of  the  day,  that  means  would  be  devised  to  check 
undue  debate  and  delay.  Absentee  members  are 
greatly  aided  by  the  pairing  system.  Pairing  is 
not  a  rule,  but  is  a  much-honored  custom  of  both 
Houses.  It  is  usual  for  members  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year  to  make  what  is  termed  a  general 
pair.  That  is,  two  men  with  opposing  views, 
practically  always  of  opposing  parties,  will  pair. 
That  means  that  if  one  of  the  pair  is  absent,  the 
other  will  withhold  his  vote.  Thus  any  man  may 
be  away  from  the  floor,  secure  in  the  knowledge 
that  his  absence  will  not  affect  the  fortunes  of  his 
cause.  When  members  expect  to  be  away  from 
the  city  for  several  days  they  may  arrange  spe- 
cial pairs,  covering  certain  votes  which  will  come 
up  during  their  absence.  In  addition  to  encour- 
aging absence  from  the  floor,  pairing  is  con- 
demned as  enabling  men  to  evade  responsibility 
for  their  votes  in  a  way  which  they  could  not  do  if 
they  were  present. 


CHAPTER  IV 


LEGISLATIVE   ABUSES 


Wasting  Time. — The  abuses  of  Congress 
may  be  divided  into  three  classes,  those  which 
waste  the  public  time,  those  which  waste  the  pub- 
lic money,  and  those  which  are  destructive  of 
public  interests.  The  ways  of  wasting  time  are 
principally  making  speeches  for  the  Record  and 
filibustering,  already  mentioned,  and  the  calling 
of  the  roll  in  the  House.  It  requires  about  forty 
minutes  to  call  the  roll  in  the  House,  and  a  favor- 
ite method  of  delaying  proceedings  is  to  demand 
frequent  roll  calls.  There  is  agitation  for  the 
substitution  of  an  electrical  system  of  roll  call 
which  would  take  less  time.  Waste  of  time  means 
waste  of  money  to  the  nation,  for  it  has  been  esti- 
mated that  it  costs  about  ten  thousand  dollars  a 
minute  to  run  Congress. 

Waste  of  Public  Money. — One  of  the  great- 
est wastes  of  money  is  the  abuse  of  the  franking 
system,  or  the  free  use  of  the  mails  to  which  mem- 
bers are  entitled.     It  was  brought  out  recently 

154 


Congress   and  Its   Work  155 

that  a  member  of  Congress,  who  desired  to  be 
elected  governor  in  his  own  state,  was  sending 
out  packages  of  books  as  gifts  to  voters.  In  one 
day  alone  he  was  said  to  have  sent  out  640,000 
of  these  packages.  The  government  must  have 
paid  a  large  amount  for  the  printing;  and  the 
postage  alone  at  regular  rates  would  have  been 
forty-five  cents  a  package,  or  $325,000.  Many 
members  have  adopted  the  custom  of  sending  a 
piece  of  literature  to  each  of  their  constituents 
once  a  week  or  once  every  few  days. 

Another  gift  made  frequently,  especially  in 
country  districts,  is  bound  copies  of  the  funeral 
orations  which  are  delivered  in  Congress  and 
whose  bindings  make  them  desirable  ornaments. 

Then  there  are  the  garden  seeds,  for  which  ap- 
propriations of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
are  made  annually.  Garden  seeds  are  the  special 
gift  of  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
but  any  voter  who  receives  a  package  may  well 
remember  that  it  is  the  public  funds,  the  taxes  of 
the  people,  which  have  been  spent  in  this  effort 
to  attract  votes  to  Representatives. 

Patronage  and  the  Pork  Barrel. —  Still  more 
expensive  to  the  public  purse  are  patronage  and 
'pork  barrel'  possibilities.  All  of  the  positions 
about  the  Capitol  are  given  as  patronage.  Every 
doorkeeper,  every  elevator  man,  every  attendant 


156  Congress  and  Its   Work 

in  the  dressing  rooms,  is  on  the  patronage  lists  of 
some  member.  The  two  greatest  'pork  barrel' 
projects  have  always  been  the  public  buildings 
appropriations  and  the  rivers  and  harbors  ap- 
propriations bills.  Members  who  wanted  to  get 
new  buildings,  postoffices,  revenue  collectors'  of- 
fices, or  bridges,  found  it  necessary  to  be  good 
friends  with  the  chairmen  of  these  committees. 
Recently  the  steering  committee  of  the  party  in 
power  in  the  House  has  ruled  that  these  bills 
may  contain  no  projects  not  already  secured  by 
bills  passed  by  Congress ;  so  this  particular  form 
of  graft  has  been  somewhat  curtailed.  Members 
still  lobby  to  increase  appropriations  for  their  dis- 
tricts and  trade  votes  with  each  other  on  bills, 
the  latter  being  called  log-rolling.' 

Loss  of  Public  Interest. — Of  the  practises 
destructive  to  public  interest,  none  is  more  seri- 
ous than  that  of  control  of  members  by  a  spirit  of 
sectionalism.  Members  are  usually  concerned  in 
getting  what  their  constituents  want  and  advanc- 
ing the  interests  of  that  particular  part  of  the 
country  from  which  they  come,  instead  of  looking 
to  the  welfare  of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  Few  take 
the  point  of  view  of  Daniel  Webster,  who  re- 
ferred to  himself  not  as  the  representative  of  his 
state,  but  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  V 

SOME   SUGGESTED   EEMEDIES 

Reforms  in  Committees.— To  regulate  the 
use  of  power  by  committees,  it  has  been  urged  that 
greater  publicity  be  given  to  committee  proceed- 
ings, that  committees  be  required  to  make  some 
report  on  all  bills  and  be  prohibited  from  smoth- 
ering any.  The  election  by  each  committee  of  its 
own  chairman,  rather  than  the  choice  of  chairmen 
by  the  party  caucus  is  also  advocated. 

Decreasing  the  Power  of  the  Lobby.— The 
pressure  which  is  brought  to  bear  upon  members 
of  Congress  to  vote  for  measures  for  private  in- 
terests rather  than  the  public  good  is  one  of  the 
most  destructive  phases  of  the  entire  system. 
Lobbying  is  the  technical  term  applied  to  the 
work  of  those  who  are  present  during  legislative 
sessions,  seeking  to  influence  members  of  Con- 
gress. Certain  strong  commercial  interests  main- 
tain a  permanent  lobby  in  Congress.  Their  rep- 
resentatives are  always  present  in  the  galleries. 
They  watch  all  that  goes  on  and  by  frequent  let- 

157 


158  Congress  and  Its   Work 

ters  and  visits  they  seek  to  impress  their  views 
upon  members.  Sometimes  lobbyists  are  them- 
selves former  members  of  Congress,  with  the 
right  to  go  on  the  floor  and  mingle  with  the  pres- 
ent members.  In  fact,  so  widespread  has  the  sys- 
tem become,  that  a  member  of  Congress  will  often 
talk  or  even  dine  with  an  old  friend,  who  seems 
sincerely  interested  in  a  certain  bill  and  cleverly 
presents  arguments  which  carry  much  weight. 
Later  the  congressman  will  discover  that  the  sup- 
posedly unprejudiced  citizen  was  a  highly  paid 
employee  of  some  concern  with  a  vital  interest  in 
the  proposed  legislation.  Bills  have  been  intro- 
duced requiring  all  lobbyists  to  register  their 
names,  the  names  of  the  organizations  they  repre- 
sent and  the  amounts  of  money  which  they  spend 
during  a  session,  but  no  such  bill  has  been  passed. 
While  a  law  of  this  kind  might  be  helpful  in  en- 
abling members  to  sift  prejudiced  opinions  from 
disinterested  ones,  the  only  effective  way  to  coun- 
ter-balance the  efforts  of  lobbyists  is  for  citizens 
generally  to  formulate  their  own  opinions  on  po- 
litical questions  and  then  to  inform  their  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress  how  they  wish  them  to 
vote. 

The  Responsibility  of  Voters. —  Burke's 
comment,  in  1770,  on  the  English  political  sys- 
tem is  applicable  to  our  American  institution 


Congress   and   Its    Work  159 

today.  "Where  there  is,"  he  said,  "a  regular 
scheme  of  operations  carried  on,  it  is  the  system, 
and  not  any  individual  person,  who  acts  in  it,  that 
is  truly  dangerous."  "Political  leaders,"  he  con- 
tinued, "contrived  to  form  in  the  outward  admin- 
istration two  parties  at  least,  which,  whilst  they 
are  tearing  one  another  to  pieces,  are  both  com- 
petitors for  the  favor  and  protection  of  the  cabal ; 
and  by  their  emulation  contribute  to  throw  every- 
thing more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  interior 
managers."/ 

Later,  after  the  founding  of  our  own  republic, 
Madison  observed  that  "in  all  legislative  assem- 
blies the  greater  the  number  composing  them, 
the  fewer  will  be  the  men  who  in  fact  direct  the 
proceedings." 

This  control  by  a  few  leaders,  whose  operations 
are  hidden  from  the  general  body  of  voters,  and 
the  difficulty  of  placing  responsibility  upon  the 
individual  members  of  Congress  or  the  party  in 
power,  have  led  to  a  serious  defect.  The  voters, 
becoming  dissatisfied  with  conditions  and  not 
realizing  the  underlying  evils  of  the  system  itself, 
have  turned  one  party  out  and  put  another  in. 
Questions  of  national  policy,  platform  principles, 
efficient  administrators,  have  all  been  thrust  aside 
at  times  and  elections  have  been  carried  on  the 
sole  issue  of  a  change  of  party.    It  has  been  said 


160  Congress  and  Its   Work 

that  the  two  major  political  parties  are  exactly 
like  bottles  with  different  labels — both  empty. 
Voters  who  have  turned  one  party  out  to  put  an- 
other in,  defeated  one  man  to  elect  another,  with- 
out any  effect  upon  the  system,  are  likely  occa- 
sionally at  least  to  agree  with  this  statement. 

Until  the  voters  realize  that  it  is  the  system 
which  is  at  fault,  they  will  be  powerless  to  effect 
any  real  reform.  Men  are  elected  to  Congress 
and  go  to  Washington  with  high  ideals.  \  They 
come  in  contact  with  the  system  which  has  been 
working  these  many  years.  They  feel  themselves 
helpless  against  it.  One  of  two  things  happens. 
Either  they  accept  the  system  and  in  time  become 
so  accustomed  to  it  that  they  think  it  the  only 
system,  or  they  rebel,  in  which  case  political  lead- 
ers make  them  ridiculous  in  the  public  eye  and  at 
the  next  election  such  men  decline  to  serve  again 
or  suffer  defeat  at  the  hands  of  their  constituents. 

The  solution  is  with  the  voters.  With  intelli- 
gent support  from  their  constituents,  a  very  few 
men  could  make  much-needed  reforms  in  the  sys- 
tem. With  every  voter  willing  to  work  for  it, 
good  government  would  quickly  become  an  estab- 
lished fact. 


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